Blueberry picking season has arrived!!! We are at Blue Youth Farms, it is 63 degrees outside, the sun is shining, and it is a beautiful morning…..
Tag Archives: Fruit
January 4, 2013
It is dark and drizzly here and I think the high was 59 degrees. Anything that we decided to do today would have to be indoors. In the morning we drove out to Parksdale to get some produce, it is officially strawberry season and the boys were excited for milk shakes, afterwards we went to Publix for our weekly shopping trip. At 12:30 Matty went on a playdate over to Gavin’s house. He played for two hours while Davy played here with Caiden. I curled up with Karen White’s new book ‘After the Rain’ (thank you dad for my birthday present) and enjoyed a nice quiet afternoon. For dinner I cooked a pesto vegetable pizza, we ate it along with some ham, and it was yummy!
Filed under Project Life 2013
Blueberries, Carytown, Swimming, Fireflies
We started our day with a little blueberry picking. The kids love to pick and eat them, so this was the perfect morning outing. Kelly had found this patch a few weeks ago, so off to Swift Berry Patch we went. The bushes were the size of small trees and the price was amazing! We stayed about an hour, until the heat became unbearable, and with much delight we had picked almost 10 pounds of berries. Looking forward to finding some yummy recipes for these…
After we dropped off the berries at home, we met Brian at his office and followed him to lunch. He took us to Cary St. Carytown is located in a trendy part of midtown, in Richmond. It is not a formal township, but it is formally recognized as a superior shopping district. Over 200 businesses, and some residents call this historic outdoor shopping mall home. Brian swore that if we went to Carytown we’d have one of the best hamburgers ever.
The sunflowers are in full bloom here, so I had get at least one photo…
Both boys got a hot dog while I ordered the California burger with a side of onion rings…Yum!
Little Emma waiting for her drink to come.
After lunch we decided to scrap our afternoon plans and have Brian take the kids home. They have been so excited for the last two days and along with the heat exhaustion was setting in. While the kids went home, Kelly and I walked down Cary St. and looked through a ton of shops.
After quiet time, the kids went for a swim. Kelly dug out a waterproof camera that the boys had received for Christmas and needless to say, the camera provided them with a long time form of entertainment. The pictures turned out cute too.
The evening thunderstorms seemed to be holding off a little bit tonight, so we set out to find the fireflies. While we were waiting for them, the boys climbed the trees and ran around with the dogs. Connor caught the most, he was super pleased. 🙂
Till tomorrow….
Filed under Carothers Family, Richmond, Vacations
Blueberry Picking For Muffins
I have decided that for Easter we need blueberry muffins. It is officially blueberry picking season, so I load the boys up in the truck and take them over to Blue Youth Berry Farms. The berries are huge this year and I know that I had better pick a lot because Andy will be all in the bag trying to eat them once I bring them home :)…
Filed under Fun Outings, Random
BJ Reece Apple Orchard
After we left the festival we decided to take the boys to pick some apples. They love to pick blueberries, so we thought that this would be fun too. Davy just finished an apple lesson in school, Johnny Appleseed, so perfect timing. There were quite a few different orchards that we could choose from, BJ’s seemed to have the largest crowd. We figured if everyone else wanted to go there, then we should too.
Now, I have heard of a lot of things, but what I have never heard of is fried pies. Andy is our pie eater in the family and his eyes were huge. When we got up to the counter, they had every kind of pie imaginable. Apple, cherry, chocolate, cream cheese, peach, pecan, etc. Yum! Of course we had to sample a few of them.
And they are off into the orchard to find us some trees that are full of apples…
What!!! How dare you throw apples at mama!!! Silly boys…
The apples all over the ground is what surprised me the most. What a waste. Matty liked to pick them up and bite into them, then he would throw it down and pick up another… No stopping the bear….
What did we do with all of our apples you ask??? We brought them home, back to Florida, and made apple jelly. Yum!
Filed under Fall, Fun Outings, Georgia, Vacations
Wk 2 – Chocolate Chip and Banana Muffins
Here’s what you do when you have to many banana’s that are too ripe….
- 1 1/2 cups of sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups mashed overripe bananas (about 6)
- 3 large eggs
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of mini chocolate chips, or 1 1/2 cups of regular chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 mini muffin tins or line them with paper or foil liners. In a large bowl, combine sugar, melted butter, bananas and eggs; mix thoroughly. In a medium bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until the batter is evenly moistened. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Spoon the batter into the cups or tins, bake for about 18 minutes, use the toothpick test for doneness, let muffins cool and serve.
These muffins are the perfect size for kids, great for breakfast, great as a snack, or can be wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to 1 month. Let them thaw and toast in a 350 degree oven.
Yields 48 mini muffins….
Filed under 52 Week Challenge, Recipes
Pick Your Own Blueberries
There’s nothing better than waking up on a Saturday morning with your family, grabbing a cup of coffee, and heading outside. Today we took the boys to Blue Youth Berries to pick their own Blueberries. The weather was beautiful, low 80’s, no humidity, and not a cloud in the sky. I stumbled across this place through my next door neighbor Kelly, she had seen them advertised and decided to check them out the weekend before. This location requires you to make an appointment, so before heading out a little planning was required.
Upon arrival we checked in and were handed a 5 gallon white bucket. Davy was so excited to get his own bucket. We stayed for about an hour and picked 3 gallons. The kids loved running up and down the isles, and everyone there was so friendly. How much does that cost you ask? $13.00. $5 for the first pound and $4 for each additional. In case you are wondering what that looks like…see the glass pitcher. It amazes me that most of the year at the local grocery store I pay $6 for two small containers. Farms and farmers markets are so much more fun and affordable. I have attached a link to Pick Your Own, this website can help anyone anywhere find fun places to pick your own food.
I wanted to make something different (don’t get me wrong cobbler and pancakes are definitely some of our favorites) and healthy. We are always trying to teach Davy to make good choices, so Italian Ice was the winner. This can be made with any fruit and goes great on a warm night after a BBQ.
- 2 cups of fruit (Blueberries)
- 2 tbl sugar
- 2 tbl honey
- 1 tbl lemon juice
- 2 cups of ice
Using a blender or food processor, blend the first 4 ingredients and then slowly blend in the ice. Freeze for roughly 2-2.5 hours in a shallow baking dish. Enjoy!
Filed under Recipes
Mountains! Beach! or Both!... 